Many different alarm systems, such as burglary, fire, medical emergency, and personal safety, transmit information to central monitoring stations over public telephone lines. When an alarm system calls the central monitoring station, the central monitoring station receiver answers the call, reads the information transmitted over the telephone line from the alarm system panel, and sends the information to an automation computer through a switching network which is controlled by a configuration computer. The information from the alarm system panel is displayed via the automation computer to a monitoring operator (a live person) and may also be printed by a printer. The monitoring operator screens the information and determines the proper action to be taken, which may include calling the police or fire department or security personnel. The time from when the central monitoring station receiver answers the call until the monitoring operator finishes with the call typically takes one to two minutes. Because central monitoring stations generally have multiple receivers that each have 36 telephone lines coming in and thousands of subscribers, there is a need to increase the efficiency of the call answering process so that other alarm calls may be answered in a timely manner.
In addition, there are calls to the central monitoring station that are invalid alarm calls that tie up the telephone lines coming into the receiver and the monitoring operator. An alarm system panel may have a bug in it or a component failure, such as a dead battery, that causes the alarm system panel to call the central monitoring station every 30 seconds, known as a “runaway dialer”. This constant calling continues until someone from the alarm system company goes to the site and fixes the alarm system. This may take days, causing the runaway dialer to tie up receiving lines for days. Other calls that may tie up the telephone lines and the monitoring operator include calls not made from an alarm system panel; calls made to the wrong number; calls from non-paying customers; calls from new customers; calls from customers with new telephone numbers; and calls from alarm systems that have an interface problem with the central monitoring station receiver.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a central monitoring station that increases the efficiency of the alarm answering process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for processing invalid alarm calls that tie up the telephone lines to the central monitoring station and the monitoring operator.